The Count of Monte-Cristo.

"All human wisdom is contained in these two words--"Wait and Hope": First Edition in English of Dumas The Count of Monte-Cristo

The Count of Monte-Cristo.

Dumas, Alexandre [Alexander].

$9,800.00

Item Number: 55046

New York: Burgess, Stringer and Company, 1846.

First American edition of the author’s masterpiece. Octavo, contemporary three quarters calf over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, two volumes bound in one. Separate title page for each volume. Complete with twelve illustrated plates. In very good condition with the previous owner’s signature of volume one. First editions in the English language are rare, with Yale being the only library to house a copy of this first edition.

The Count of Monte Cristo, in particular, is "perhaps the outstanding work of fiction to reveal the futility of human vengeance, even when it attains its utmost completeness. Maurice Baring calls it the most popular book in the world" (Frank Wild Reed). "One of the best thrillers ever written" (Reid, 134).

Edition du Luxe of the Works of Alexandre Dumas. One of a thousand numbered copies. Octavo, 40 volumes. Bound in three quarters blue morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt ruled to the front and rear panel, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Illustrated throughout. In near fine condition. A very nice set.

One of the earliest known editions of The Count of Monte Cristo. Bound in contemporary half leather over boards. In very good condition with wear to the bottom cloth and extremities. Illustrated with the frontispiece portrait and 29 plates on thicker paper by Gavarni, Johannot and others, each with a tissue guard. This copy includes plates, rarely found in this scarce edition. There are no copies of this edition recorded in OCLC or the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and in the last twenty-five years no copies have appeared at auction.

D’Artagnan Edition, #H of 26 copies of the lettered edition. Octavo, 43 volumes. Bound in full morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, fleur-de-lis gilt stamped to the spine, double gilt ruled to the front and rear panel, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, inner dentelles. Illustrated throughout with engraved plates. In near fine condition.

First edition in English of the author’s masterpiece, published just one year after the original French edition and before the American first. Octavo, 2 volumes. Bound in full contemporary brown calf over, gilt titles to the spine. Twenty wood-engraved plates after Henry Valentin. In near fine condition with some light rubbing to the extremities. First editions in the English language are rare.

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